Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1887-01-06

would seem % present an impossible bar
rier to any living thing. Yet the mount
ed panther hunters follow their dog
through this thicket with apparent ease.
The hunter carries rifle, stout rope
or rawhide lasso, small Ak, and keen,
long bladed hunting knife. With the lat
ter grasped in his right hand, the horse
man cuts his way with sweeping slashes
of the blade through the low hanging
creepers, making an opening so quickly
and surely that the horse is rarely delay
ed in his course. The dogs guide the
hunter by their loud baying as soon as a
panther's trail is scented, and so well are
these dogs trained that the crossing of
bear or deer on the panther's track, which
is frequent occurrence, never leads the
dog away from the 'game he had been
sent TO follow.
"a panther soon trees after it finds
that the dogs are on its trail, always Sc
lects some large tree as a refuge. When
the dogs reach the tree their bayings
change to a peculiar bark, which an
nounces to the hunter that the game is
brought to bay. Usually rife bail dis
lodges the panther, and he leaps or falls
to the ground, when the dogs at once
attack him. Unless the animal is so
badly wounded as to render it helpless,
between it and the dogs it rarely ends
without one or two of the latter being
torn to pieces, and the fierce fight to the
death is the exciting part of the hunt.
Sometimes, however, panther-hunt is
attended by circumstances that give it
spice of danger to the sportsman that
makes the fight with the dogs at the foot
d - nj in
SON"
"Bruse Weston, an old time Arkansas
hunter, followed his dogs once upon n
panthers trail and, came up with
them where they had freed the game in
a big oak tree. The foliage was so thick,
and the the shadows SO deep in the limb
or that 1t was sometime before Watson
discovered the panther. 1t lay between
two branches forty feet from the ground
and chung so closely to the boughs that
none but the practiced eye Of the hunter
would have detected its presence. West
on at once recognized in the crouching
figure a panther's cub and was on the
point OF sending n rihe-ball through its
body, when he remembered an offer of
$50 that someone in the settlement had
mads for live panther, and he resolved
twenty dollars. Taking his lasso from
his pony's saddle, and with his long
knife in his belt for use in an emergency,
he climbed the tree. He reached the
lower branches of the tree, and
swinging himself from bough to Dough,
stood just below the cub, which had
raised TO its feet and stood with
arched back looking down at the hsnter
Il l. Il. a. L.
der, and was about TO toss it easily over
the young panther's head, when as he
raised his eyes, he saw, croaching in the
dead branches of tree which grew near
the oak-so near that the limbs we're in
terlaced an enormous panther the
mother of the cub, ready for a spring.
She was hardly three PAGES away. With
out seconds delay Weston stepped from
the branch he was standing on to one
which brought him with the trunk of the
tree between him and the old panther.
He was just in time, for at that instant
the mother az the cub leaped on Hhe spot
he had left, and stood gazing with frey
eyes on the hunter, who with One arm
clasped around a branch, held in his right
hand his bare knife, as with every breath
he drew he expected to see the enraged
amman SpTlHB uOWu upon MIN.
Standing thus forty feet above the
ground, with only the treacherous footing
of limb a few inches thick, Weston
knew that he was lost unless by tact and
skill he was able to gradually make his
way back TO the foot of the tree without
irritating tho fierce beast into precipi-
tating an attack upon hIm. Fortunately
the cub left its place higher up and
leaped down to the branch on which its
mother stood glazing at Weston, who was
almost near enough to her to feel her hot
breath, This movement of the cub dis
tracted the attention of the old panther, /
and Weston, shesthing his knife in has
belt, dropped to lower limb. The pan
Their noticed the movement and sprang
to the limb below where she stood aud
prevented Weston from retreating far
liter.
"The dogs all this time were crazy with |
excitement at the foot of the tree and
gnawed at the trunk and tore up the !
ground in their frantic anxiety to get at
the game SO far above their reach. Yves /
ton, seeing that his retreat was cut off, /
and not daring to risk struggle with the /
panther where the slightest msstep
would dash him headlong TO death, re- /
turned to his old position in the tree. and I
the panther followed him Keeping by /
a great effort, his body covered by the /.
trunk of the tree, Weston climbed still /
higher, hoping to reach strong creoper /
that extended from the upper paft Of the /
oak to tree a few feet away, believing
that he night let himself 10y his hands /
along the vine to the other tree. by which
he could easily reach the ground. The
creeper was strongly fastened o. the oak, /
and he supposed it was as secure on the
other tree. Weston got as far as the
creeper without the panther showing any
disposition to follow him, but he had Just
seized it and was trying his weight care
fully on 1t, keeping his eyes on the ami
mai below, when the mother of the cub
seemed 70 be moved with renewed fury,
for she sprang TO a branch above, and so
made her way to the outer edge of the
branches toward the top of the tree eyi
IDENTIFY intending to head the hunter off,
and spring down upon him. Weston saw